Leeds drug dealer stripped of £104,000 cash, cars and Rolex watch

Tony Gardner

A CRIMINAL who ran a drug dealing hotline on the streets of Leeds is being stripped of more than £104,000.

Anh Hoang, 35, of Talbot Avenue, Moortown, was jailed for 11 years in September last year following an investigation by officers from the Leeds district’s specialist drugs team, Operation Quartz.

Hoang lived a lavish lifestyle on money generated from a drugs supply network known locally as the Yella Line or Tom Line.

The operation supplied heroin and crack cocaine in north-east Leeds through a team of street dealers.

Hoang was returned to Leeds Crown Court to face a confiscation order for £104,683.89 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

He now has 90 days to pay £49,182.18 or receive an additional 18-months in prison.

Police have already sold off four of his cars, including an Audi TT RS, and are due to make up the rest of the sum with the sale of other items including his Rolex watch.

At the same hearing a Serious Crime Prevention Order was granted against him under the Serious Crime Act 2007 – the first time such an order has been used in a Leeds Quartz case.

The order means that for five years following his release from prison he will be under a number of restrictions which if he breaches he can be sent back to jail for up to five years.

These include restrictions on how much cash he can possess, his access to communication devices such as mobile phones as well as conditions of having to notify the police of any vehicle he owns, controls or hires or any premises he owns or has access to. He is also barred from associating with named individuals involved in the previous drug dealing operation.

Superintendent Pat Twiggs, Head of Crime for Leeds District, said: “Hoang’s case shows how we are making full use of the law to target people involved in the supply of drugs with the aim of putting them out of business permanently.

“Not only has he received a lengthy prison sentence, these orders are seeing him stripped of the trappings of his lavish lifestyle that he generated from crime and subject to wide-ranging restrictions for a significant period following his release from prison.

“Those measures will prevent him from setting up another drugs operation on his release or see him sent back to prison if he breaches any of the restrictions.

“It should send a clear deterrent message to others who think they can get away with dealing drugs without having to face the consequences.”

Quartz officers targeted Hoang after observing crack cocaine and heroin deals on the streets in the Harehills, Lincoln Green and Little London areas of the city between January and May 2012.

Checks on mobile phones recovered from drugs users arrested following the transactions showed outgoing calls made to the drugs ‘hotline’ numbers.

Enquiries revealed that users would telephone or send a text message to a mobile phone number associated with the drugs supply network and then be directed to locations in Leeds where they would be supplied with heroin or crack cocaine by street dealers who had been told where to meet them by the person operating the Yella/Tom line.

Further investigations identified that the network was controlled by Hoang predominantly using accomplice Kevin Sam to hold the Yella/Tom mobile phones.

Sam would answer calls from buyers and arrange the supply of drugs from a team of street dealers who were also identified from police enquiries.

When warrants were executed at the addresses of those involved in the network, police recovered mobile phones linked to the Yella/Tom line along with crack and heroin.

Sam, 23, of Pennington Place, Woodhouse, was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months. Four others received jail terms.

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